India in Talks Over Critical Minerals Deals with Brazil, Canada, France, Netherlands

• India is in talks with Brazil, Canada, France and the Netherlands over deals to jointly explore, extract, process and recycle critical minerals as it broadens its global outreach to secure supplies of key raw materials. The focus would be on lithium and rare earths, and India would also seek access to mineral-processing technologies.
• Heavy reliance on archrival China, which dominates global supplies of many minerals and has advanced mining and processing technology, underscores the need for India to reach out to a range of countries as it accelerates its energy transition to cut emissions, mining experts said. However, from discovery to production, mining can take years, as exploration alone spans five to seven years and often ends without a viable mine.
• India aims to replicate elements of a critical minerals agreement it signed with Germany in January 2026, which covers exploration, processing and recycling, as well as the acquisition and development of mineral assets in both countries and in third countries. India has been scouting globally for critical minerals and has signed pacts with Argentina, Australia, and Japan, and is in discussions with Peru and Chile on broader bilateral agreements that also cover critical minerals.
• Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to visit India in early March 2026 and sign deals on uranium, energy, minerals, and artificial intelligence. Canada's Natural Resources Department noted in a January 2026 statement that both sides had agreed to formalise cooperation on critical minerals in the coming weeks.
• India's expanding international engagement comes at a time when finance ministers from the G7 and other major economies met in Washington last month to discuss ways to cut dependence on rare earths from China.

(Source: Reuters)